MILWAUKEE — Discovery World has opened a new hands-on exhibit called Mobilab, giving kids the chance to design, build, and test their own toy vehicles through the scientific process. The exhibit runs through Sept. 6.
Shannon Atwood, Vice President of Exhibits and Experiences at Discovery World, said the exhibit is drawing visitors of all ages.
"We see lots of kids of all ages interacting with this exhibit, building cars, testing them, flying them off the track, all sorts of fun things," Atwood said.
The exhibit is built around hands-on experimentation and learning from failure. Kids design a vehicle, test it on a track, collect data, and return to improve their design.
"It's a lot about hands-on experimentation, so learning from failure, going through the scientific process, designing a car, testing it, coming back and building it, and seeing how they can improve on that," Atwood said.
There is no single correct outcome in Mobilab. Participants can aim to build a car that completes a jump through a hoop or one that performs best on a stability test.
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"There's no right or wrong answer in this exhibit, so they can build the car that's going to do the jump through the hoop, or they can build the car that's going to do the best on the stability test," Atwood said.
The process includes a series of checkpoints where kids can weigh their vehicle, measure its dimensions, and test different wheel configurations before heading back to the track.
"You can build your first version of your car, test it out, and then come back, weigh it, measure how long it is, how tall it is, test out different wheels to use, and then go back and try it again," Atwood said.
Atwood said the skills kids take away go beyond the exhibit floor.
"They're learning to learn from failure, so that's the big part of this exhibit. And then they're learning to go back, record data, and try to improve on their design throughout the process," Atwood said.
Mobilab made its official debut over the weekend and will remain open through Sept. 6. Discovery World is located in Milwaukee.
TMJ4 learned about this exhibit through our partnership with Imagine MKE, a nonprofit dedicated to Milwaukee's arts community.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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